Child labour in demand in Rwanda

By Emmanuel Goujon, Daily Main & Guardian
(Johannesberg), 2 May 2000

Children as young as six work 10-hour shifts in Rwanda

This is Rwanda's junior labour force. How junior? The youngest are
just six years old.

Child labourers are much in demand in Rwanda, a country short of
manpower since the genocide which claimed between half a million and
800 000 lives in 1994 left a quarter of a million orphans, although
the social services now put the figure at 300 000.

It's a sweated, exploited force, says the United Nations.

"Most of these children are exploited by adults and badly
under-paid," said Cyriaque Ngoboka, an official with Unicef, the
United Nation's children's agency.

At the various brickworks on the outskirts of the capital Kigali, work
starts early with a break towards the end of the afternoon, officially
so that the "labourers" can go to school.

But most are too tired to walk several miles back to their village, so
they spend the time resting up on the site ahead of several hours'
more labour.

"Generally they're reckoned to get 5 000 Rwandan francs a month,
whatever they do," Ngoboka said. "Most of the time they don't
go to school, so they have little chance of escaping this system of
exploitation."

Unicef has pushed the Rwandan government into introducing legislation
prohibiting child labour. But it is being enforced only fitfully.

Francois Ngarambe, Rwanda's minister of youth and sport, said: "We
know there are abuses in small companies and in rural areas, and the
government has taken steps to have the law enforced."

"We're trying to set up education programmes for children without
schooling so that they can learn a trade," the minister
said. "Regulations have also been introduced to enforce respect
for the legal minimum work age which is generally 18."

Meanwhile some 2 000 mainly orphans called the Mayibobo are living on
the streets of Kigali.

Left to fend for themselves, they scrape a living selling newspapers,
cigarettes, Kleenex tissues, working as parking attendants. Begging.
Stealing.

Unicef's Ngoboka also identified another form of child labour:
"Children used as servants, especially the genocide orphans, who
get their upkeep from families in return for their labour," he
explained, adding: